Rotating shears known in continuous refined iron mills and/or wire mills are limited in their capacity due to the time required for moving the blades into operating position, and then returning them. As will be appreciated, opposed rotating guides are used to move the material and since the material guides rotate at about rolling speed, it takes about three fourths of a revolution of the guides to extend or retract the cutting blades. At higher material speeds of around 40 meters per second, which is generally the current speed being used, considerable effort is needed for acceleration and deceleration of the bulk comprised of the blades and the associated devices for moving them, let alone at a required coordinated speed. In addition, even though rolling speeds of better than 50 m/sec. are presently technically available such rotating shears cannot be utilized because their bulk cannot be moved fast enough, and it is, therefore, necessary to resort to other known cutting arrangements, which result in uneven and inaccurate cuts.